Charles Fowler (1799–1858),Surgeon of Cheltenham,and His Contemporaries

Humphris E Willoughby EC . At Cheltenham Spa, or Georgians in a Georgian Town. London: A A Knopf, 1928: 23–7, 55–7. The story of an illustrious Gloucestershire family emerges since the seventeenth century and there was a medical ancestry: “The Fowlers who eventually settled in Cheltenham were descended from Henry Fowler (c. 1678), the doctor”. Charles and Henry were great-great-great-grandsons.

The Improved Cheltenham Guide. Bath: Wood & Co, 1816: 63. Bell A . Tudor Foundation, A Sketch History of Richard Pate's Foundation in Cheltenham. Chalfont St Giles: Pate Foundation, 1974: 96, 108. H B Fowler was spoken of rather disparagingly by Dr A Bell, who, to quote, “was not untypical of grammar school headmasters of the time”.

Fosbroke TD . A Picturesque and Topographical Account of Cheltenham and its Vicinity, to Which are Added Contributions Towards the Medical Topography by John Fosbroke. Cheltenham: S C Harper, 1826: 220.

Bell A (op. cit. ref. 2): 95. Henry Fowler mrcs qualification: Cheltenham Guide 1816 (op. cit. ref. 2).

Cheltenham Guide 1816 (op. cit. ref. 2): 62–3. This gives an account of the work and statistics for 1814, the first complete 12 months of the institution. Doughton DM. The Beginnings of the Cheltenham Dispensary, Gloucestershire History, No. 5. Gloucester: Gloucestershire Rural Community Council, 1991: 14–17.

Cheltenham Chronicle, 11 March 1813 and 17 January 1828. H Fowler's resignation: succeeded by Mr W Whitmore lsa mrcs, Ed, of St George's Place.

Saunders PLL . Edward Jenner, The Cheltenham Years (1795–1820). Reprint from the Practitioner 1970; 203: 225–30. The Improved Cheltenham Guides. Bath: Wood & Co, 1812 and 1816 (op. cit. ref. 2). Evidence is that Henry Fowler's residence is now in Well Walk, then 2 Crescent place, 1818–37, which contradicts Saunders. T Newell, Surgeon-Extraordinary to King George IV, published in the first volume of the Midland Reporter. At the dispensary he was physician for 20 years and secretary for three; he was also one time chairman of the summer and winter balls. T Minster was a parish doctor and dispensary surgeon (1793–1836). Minster's vestry accounts give the tasks undertaken by the parish doctor. He was also chairman to meetings concerned with medical relief to the unions.

Humphris E Willoughby EC (op. cit. ref. 1): 98. Henry was associated with the Gloucestershire Vaccine Association: Gloucestershire Record Office, P78 OV 2/1 Overseers' Parish Records of St Mary's Church, Cheltenham. The salaries of the parish doctors had been adjusted to account for the already rising population and accidents from house building: 11 April 1818, £1 15s 0d to H Fowler for attendance on Sarah Barnsden at Elkstone (parish of Rev HB Fowler); 26 December 1815, coroner's case 9 Chronicle Cheltenham , 4 December 1809 and 19 December 1816: Rev C Jervis forms The Society for the Relief and Employment of the Deserving Sick Poor, of the Parish of Cheltenham.

Doughton DM . The Early Decades of the Cheltenham Dispensary. Gloucestershire History. Gloucester: Gloucestershire Rural Community Council, 1994: 4–8.

Humphris E Willoughby EC (op. cit. ref. 1): 55. Henry Bond Fowler MA was educated at St Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Bell A (op. cit. ref. 2): 53–61, “the first headmasters”: Charles was given a favourite school book of his father, An Introduction to the True Astronomy (1730), with the admonition “to take care of it”.

Rosner L . Medical Education in the Age of Improvement. Edinburgh Students and Apprentices 1760–1826. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991: 35, 38. Rosner explains the many distinctions of medical education and mentions a “distaste for servile apprenticeship”, in contrast to a liberal education which was then so suited for the physician (remembering the physician's seniority that had long existed in the professional league). Woodward J. To Do the Sick No Harm. A Study of the British Voluntary Hospital System to 1875. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974: 24–6. Woodward gives a synopsis of the transformation of medical education towards the Medical Act 1858.

Fosbroke TD (op. cit. ref. 3): 211, 220–1.

Cheltenham Guide 1812 (op. cit. ref. 7): 69.

Children's Registers of Christ's Hospital, deposited at the Manuscripts Department, Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London: 1806–9.

The Midland Medical and Surgical Reporter and Topographica¹ and Statistical Journal 1830–1; 2: 38–47 (British Library shelf no. 1570/83). (Also Munk's Roll. London: Royal College of Physicians, Vol. 3, p. 96.) T Christie would have been sorely missed by the Fowlers, having been associated with Jenner (“an intimate friend”) and the Gloucestershire Vaccine Association, after Christie's career as a young doctor in Ceylon, “where he wiped out small pox”. He took an active part in the establishment of the dispensary and gave services as a physician. On C Turner see the same journal, 1828–9; 1: 439–41; and 1830–1; 2: 305–10, 388–91. C Averill was dispensary surgeon and active with C Fowler in the establishment of the medical museum from 1828 until his death, due to a fall from a horse. His obituary (1830) in the Cheltenham Chronicle mentioned “his particular bent to surgery, and masterly attainment of it, was not so manifest until his return from France, … superior opportunities and system of Paris”. Averill in 1823 had published a book, Operative Surgery, that went into further editions and foreign languages. He also wrote on the subject of “advice for the benefit of students”.

Baron J , biographer to Jenner, took an active part in the establishment of the dispensary and the institution's rules based on his experiences at Bath; J McCabe was author of a Treatise on the Cheltenham Waters and hospital physician some 16 years. Midland Reporter (op. cit. ref. 16): 181–6. E Goodman was a servant.

Bartrip PWJ . Mirror of Medicine. A History of the British Medical Journal. Oxford: BMJ and Oxford University Press, 1990: 7.

Medical Directory, 1852, Wellcome Institute, London: 411. St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical Archives, X54/1: the journal of Ludford Harvey, surgeon (1807–24), lists a Charles Fowler as student 1820–1 and a Henry Fowler 1821–2; their tutor surgeon was Johnson Abernethy (St Bartholomew's, 1815–27).

Kert JF . Provincial medical practice in England. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 1964; 19: 19–25.

Gelfund T . Hospital teaching as private enterprise. In: Bynum W Porter R , eds. William Hunter and the Medical World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985: 130. Discusses the London and French experience. Lane J. The role of apprenticeship in eighteenth century medical education in England. Ibid.: 87. For example, H Peart, who practised in Worcestershire in 1830, spent three months in Paris after taking medical courses in London. Cardew GA. Echoes and Reminiscences of Medical Practitioners in Cheltenham of the Nineteenth Century. Cheltenham: EJ Burrow, 1930: 11.

Doughton DM (op. cit. ref. 5): 14–15. Cheltenham Chronicle, 13 January 1831.

Hart G . A History of Cheltenham. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1965: 195 (the standard book on Cheltenham's history).

Loudon ISL . The origins of the growth of the dispensary movement in England. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1981; S5: 330.

Cardew GA (op. cit. ref. 21): 11.

Gloucestershire Record Office, HO 3 8/1–20, annual general meetings, 1827: 3–4; 1831–3, establishment of a school for medical education; 1841: 26–7, a pupil of C Fowler paid a three-guinea fee. (The hospital, since 1839, had had a house surgeon/secretary, which probably accounts for this record, whereas earlier pupils to C Fowler almost certainly existed).

Cheltenham Chronicle, 1 January 1827.

Cheltenham Chronicle, 9 May and 12 December 1839. C J Hawkins LSA 1835, mrcs 1837, was dispensary and hospital surgeon 1840–69, surgeon to the Female Orphan Asylum, and a contributor to the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association - “Report of Surgical Cases” (undated). Cardew GA (op. cit. ref. 21): 17. Hawkins is reputed by Cardew to have probably had Lauriston Winterbotham md as one of the last of the former apprentice pupils.

Cheltenham Chronicle, 28 February 1839. Bell A. Pleasure Town, Cheltenham 1830–1860.

Chalfont St Giles: Salder R , 1980: 32. T Wright was a public health pioneer and a medical officer of health (1873)Gloucestershire Record Office, HO 3 8/1–20, annual general meeting, 1855: 4. A Eves, a distinguished Cheltenham surgeon, also carried similar attributes to H C Boisragon and T Wright.

Ignotus C . The Golden Decade of a Favoured Town, 1843–1853. London: Elliot Stock, 1884: 201–3.

Ingledew W , Esq, was surgeon, hospital benefactor and vice-president. Gloucestershire Record Office, HO 3 8/1–20, annual general meeting, 1838: 1–28. The house was purchased from Robert Capper, previous owner and benefactor. The new hospital opened on 24 June 1839; R W Jearrad was responsible for the survey and plans, Messrs Haines and Sons for the contract. The building now listed still exists as Normandy House in the High Street.

Gloucestershire Record Office, HO 3 8/1–20, annual general meeting, 1839, re the rules and regulations, which increased from 29 (made in 1826) to 214.

Cole C , Esq, hospital treasurer and trustee.

Gloucestershire Record Office, HO 3 8/1–20, annual general meeting, 1857.

Cheltenham Chronicle, 17 September 1840 and 7 December 1848.

Cheltenham Chronicle, 12 January and 23 February 1832.

Cheltenham Chronicle, 23 March 1837.

heltenham Chronicle, 23 May 1839.

Journal of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association 1833; 1: 1–18. McMenemey WH . The Life and Times of Sir Charles Hastings, Founder of The British Medical Association. London: E S Livingstone, 1959: 166–70. For local detail see Doughton DM (op. cit. ref. 10): 6–7.

Personal letter of Charles Fowler from London to his wife Blanche, 3 July 1847. B C Brodie, as president, and W Lawrence, as vice-president, are signatories to C Fowler's 1844 FRCS (Hon) certificate of the Royal College of Surgeons, dated 29 August 1844. Letters and documents made available and in the present possession of a great granddaughter.

Goding J . Norman's History of Cheltenham. Cheltenham, 1863: 574. Fauconberg House was designed by Mr S Olney.

Journal of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association 1833; 1: 1–18. Midland Medical and Surgical Reporter and Topographical and Statistical Journal 1830–1; 2: 142.

Goding J (op. cit. ref. 42): 622. Cheltenham Chronicle, 18 July 1833: 3. Gloucestershire Record Office, HO 3 8/1–20, annual general meeting, 1855.